◆ The dominating story of the day, naturally, is the deliberate automobile attack by a white nationalist on counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one and injuring scores more. Two more were killed when a police helicopter crashed near the city.

The deadly driver has been charged with serious crimes, but not with first-degree murder. We’ll know more about his connections to others on the extreme right as the investigation unfolds.

Both sides came prepared for violence, wearing protective helmets, masks and carrying flags. When violence broke out, many of the flags were stripped from the wood handles and the handles were used as clubs.

Both sides brought street medics equipped with bandages and fluids for flushing eyes and skin afflicted with pepper spray.

Alt-right demonstrators arrived at Emancipation Park around 9 a.m. with several counter-protesters already present. While the demonstrators milled about the park waving flags, several protesters prayed nearby and others sang while state police ringed the marchers to keep the sides separate inside the park.

One right-wing group in military garb, carrying rifles and wearing pistols, stood between the pro-white demonstrators and counter-protesters….

One African-American reporter was punched by an alt-right demonstrator wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of Adolf Hitler.

Protesters pelted the alt-right marchers trying to enter the park with balloons filled with paint and both sides hurled water bottles, some with urine inside, and other makeshift missiles at each other. As more scuffles broke out, the two sides began clubbing each other with the flag poles, sticks and makeshift clubs. Others threw road flares and other items across Market Street at each other. –Daily Progress, Charlottesville

Comment:ZipDialog always tries to highlight the best local reporting. In this case, as in so many, the local journalism is more informative than the national, fly-in reporters.

◆President Trump’s condemnation of the violence from “many sides” has been sharply criticized (including by many Republicans) for failing to single out white nationalists.